March 22, 2016: An average of 91 km of rural roads have been built every day in fiscal 2015-16, resulting in a total addition of 30,500 km of rural roads, according to government figures.

About 6,500 habitations have been connected during the fiscal because of these new roads. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed by officials on the progress of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and other schemes.

The government has adopted innovative best practices under the PMGSY to further speed up the rural road construction progress. These include the use of GIS and space imagery for planning and monitoring; efficient fund flow by minimising the number of layers; and citizen grievance redressal through an app, "Meri Sadak."

Modi told officials to put in place an effective mechanism for stringent quality monitoring of the roads being built under the scheme. He said quality checks should be made at the material procurement stage, the construction stage, as well as the maintenance stage.